During the Bosnian War, Danijel, a soldier fighting for the Serbs, re-encounters Ajla, a Bosnian who's now a captive in his camp he oversees. Their once promising connection has become ambiguous as their motives have changed.
During the Bosnian War, the captive Bosnian Ajla is brought with other women to a Serbian barrack to serve the soldiers. The commander Danijel recognizes Ajla that he met in a night-club and wooed her and he discreetly protects her. They rekindle their love, but can they trust on each other?—Claudio Carvalho, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
Danijel, a Serb, first meets Ajla, a Bosnian, on the dance floor. Their flirtations are brought to an abrupt end by a bomb attack. Its 1992 and Yugoslavias civil war is raging. All of a sudden, Danijel is a soldier with orders to obey, and Ajla is now a woman who lives in fear of her life. Shortly afterwards Ajla is imprisoned at an internment camp where rape and torture are the order of the day. One of the camps henchmen is Danijel. In order to protect Ajla, who is an artist, he asks her to draw portraits of his comrades-in-arms. At first their relationship is fuelled by passion but before long Ajla realises her powerful position and uses Danijels desire to help other Bosnian women prepare an uprising. Desperate for his Islamic-hating fathers respect, Danijel tries to prove his masculinity to Ajla of all people.
Angelina Jolies directorial debut tells a story that puts a human face on the Balkan war. The plot centres on a struggle for survival, and a conflict on a battlefield where it is no longer possible to distinguish between repression and desire, strategy and feelings.
Source: Berlinale
